Best results yet with Lee 7/8 slug:
The first five shots (in the white) were while trying to adjust my iron sights at 50 yards; this is with an H&R Tracker II, and the irons are kind of fiddly and hard to get right. I was shooting from a bench, but just with elbow rest---no bag. The last 4 were in the black (that's 3 inches), with 3 touching. I realize that's lame, could be chance, etc., and I'll try to shoot some proper groups sometime soon, but I was pretty excited about how these shot once I got the sights squared away. I proceeded to shoot the rest of my box of 25 at the 100 meter gongs, and hit the 12" gong every time. That has never happened before with any Lee slugs, so once again Happy! Happy!
Here are the components used:
Lee 7/8 oz. slug, 2 X 16ga 0.135" card, Claybuster CB3118-12AR (12C1) wad, cheapo Challenger hull (range pickup) with a Cheddite primer, 16.5 grains of Alliant e3.
Stacked:
Loaded:
This load should run about 1200 fps and 6500 psi, based on twin load data, but I've used multiple substitutions here, and not chronographed this time. So, it's mild shooting and very low pressure. Since I always like to check the wads, I walked out to the 25-30 yard band where all the wads fell, and checked the wads:
This was the most remarkable thing of all---not a single petal sheared off on any of the wads! Fair amount of soot from the low-pressure burn, too. Also, nice rifling engagement; not sure how well it shows up in the photos, but engagement mainly at the middle of the slug and on the gas seal.
All in all, I was quite pleased with this, and I think this was my most accurate load ever with these slugs. I think the modest velocity and low pressure helped with accuracy, and e3 is able to do this with good consistency. Most of you probably won't have these wads on hand, but they are readily available from Claybuster, and they're good all-around wads. You could use any Euro hull and any primer here, and you could probably use another fast burning powder like Red Dot or Titewad in a similar charge, but the stars really did align with this particular combo.